Your Ku Klux Koworkers

I like to ask questions. I watch and read the news, but I keep asking questions because most sources of information don’t satisfy me. Sometimes I find what I am looking for, sometimes I don’t. So this is the result of some of my questioning. 

       A few years ago, as I noticed a resurgence in people’s willingness to be openly racist, I started asking questions.
       Now, I know right away, some people will reject the notion that people were/are more openly racist. If you’re one of those people, stop reading now. You are, in fact, unreachable. My more aware friends always told me, “Mike, it’s not that they don’t know, they don't want to know!” I’m seeing this more and more.
       Well, on with the story. As I am a curious type, I started asking questions. Is the Ku Klux Klan as an organization getting stronger? If so, how? Are they recruiting? Do they have websites?
Boom, that was it! I would search their websites. And I found plenty. This was long before goons with tiki torches descended on Charlottesville.

In particular, I found some very disturbing, yet very enlightening points of strategy for these groups. Let me know if any of this seems like it’s familiar. It is to me and it makes my stomach knot up. 

       They decided a subversive approach would be best. These are some of the things I found as common themes on many of these white supremacist, white knights, KKK sites:

         “ It is not so productive to make it obvious what you think of Negroes. We cannot stand on the courthouse steps and yell the n-word (they spelled it out). We have to keep our views less obvious. 

Instead, we have to change things differently. We need to become more politically active. We need to elect more people like ourselves. We need to focus on Christian values, patriotism and Americanism. We will attack people and political opposition based on not being Christians or not being American... 

 We need to get more involved in our police and fire departments and public services.” 

       I’m not sure I need to write much else. But if you did not pick up on it, they chose to co-opt values ideas that matter to people in order to hide behind them. This way when someone attacks them politically, they can say, “They hate America, the flag, the military, Christians.....”
       Crazy thing is that it’s much like what ISIS or the Taliban does to further their twisted aims. In other words, neither of these entities represents what they purport to, they only use them. 

       But I’ll finish with this. We all know amazing people in public service. We know they love their country and are dedicated. I’ve always had solid relationships with them and a huge appreciation for them and the sacrifices they make, as well as their families’ sacrifices (some are my family). 

 But know this, some twisted people have co-opted your good values, and hidden their filthy agenda behind them. And now they might be working alongside you.
       You need to separate yourselves from them. You probably know who they are. You probably have been ignoring their occasional racist slip, thinking, “Hey, he’s not like that!” Well he is...and now you know this.